One of the best free programs to come out in a while is the World Wide Telescope. Microsoft WorldWide Telescope is a virtual telescope software that enables you to explore the universe with the help of interactive star charts and high resolution imagery from some of the best land and sky based telescopes.

You don’t have to download any software to your PC to enjoy what Microsoft Research’s WorldWide Telescope has to offer – it’s now available online as a web application! This is good news for folks running non-Windows operating systems who were previously unable to use this amazing tool which lets your computer function as a virtual telescope while bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world.

The new WWT web application uses Silverlight 2.0 to display the satellite imagery within your browser and it offers most of the features of the desktop application, including the following:

Access to hundreds of terabytes of sky, earth and planet data

Ability to navigate seamlessly through 3D spherical environments

Finder Scope to quickly identify astronomical objects

Instant thumbnail previews of tens of thousands of popular astronomical objects

Access to billions of objects in web-based astronomical catalogue

Loading tours, images and other WorldWide Telescope data files on local machine